Thread: Dovo 6/8" Straight Razor

Well it is possible that it was a factory edge. There are a few sellers that hand hone every razor before it is sent out. You did not mention where it was purchased. Factory edges, as said are very hit and miss. Gssixgun is close by in north Idaho. I have no idea if anyone is closer. There is the whole shave and strop experience, that also as mentioned is paramount to getting a good shave. I have seen more than one straight razor shaving video on YouTube showing poor technique. Geo fat boy does some good straight razor shave videos. A good stropping video
https://youtu.be/7C6NlY_NEXQ

Originally Posted by hatzicho

Great advice here Jerry - but I cannot agree to what you have said above. In the great Solingen times it was absolutely self-evident that all razors were honed to shave ready before they leave the facility. Scaling and honing was a seperate job beside razor grinding - done by special educated people. And it was an honour and understood craftmanship that each and every razor was honed and finished properly.
Of course shave ready in former times didn't mean maybe exactly what we or some specialists in honing nowadays except from shave ready.
But it is for me not understandable that - lets say some of the remaining larger companies in Solingen - who are still very proud to put "Solingen" on each razor, knife and scissor, deliver such bad quality, as well in grinding sometimes and also in honing. I spoke with a lot these companies the last years in Solingen and often about the quality in honing.
The first thing even a newcommer recognize if he buy a razor is, if he can have a (more or less, depending on the experience) comfortable shave with it. He don't look at the quality of grinding, that comes later, but he recognizes immediately if the razor is really sharp. And I can't really understand why the companies don't care about that, even if they know about these circumstances! And that cannot cost any extra cent more. Comfortable keenness is a necessary precondition for each razor!
But talking and talking doesn't help - at leats with some companies. There are others who are doing better though, still keeping the honour of good craftmanship allive.

Sorry but could not hold back the above tirade.

If for what reason ever, Glen or other good honers in the States don't have the time or possibility, send the razor to me back to Germany I will hone it for free. It is a shame.

Regards Peter

In times past on this site I've said many times products reflect the times they are manufactured in. No matter where in the world you live (well, almost) in times way past a man was judged by his labor. If a man went into a store to buy a razor and it was not shave ready that was a defective razor plain and simple.

It was either replaced (not repaired) or the shopkeeper might have found himself on the way to the hospital.

Originally Posted by hatzicho

Great advice here Jerry - but I cannot agree to what you have said above. In the great Solingen times it was absolutely self-evident that all razors were honed to shave ready before they leave the facility. Scaling and honing was a seperate job beside razor grinding - done by special educated people. And it was an honour and understood craftmanship that each and every razor was honed and finished properly.
Of course shave ready in former times didn't mean maybe exactly what we or some specialists in honing nowadays except from shave ready.
But it is for me not understandable that - lets say some of the remaining larger companies in Solingen - who are still very proud to put "Solingen" on each razor, knife and scissor, deliver such bad quality, as well in grinding sometimes and also in honing. I spoke with a lot these companies the last years in Solingen and often about the quality in honing.
The first thing even a newcommer recognize if he buy a razor is, if he can have a (more or less, depending on the experience) comfortable shave with it. He don't look at the quality of grinding, that comes later, but he recognizes immediately if the razor is really sharp. And I can't really understand why the companies don't care about that, even if they know about these circumstances! And that cannot cost any extra cent more. Comfortable keenness is a necessary precondition for each razor!
But talking and talking doesn't help - at leats with some companies. There are others who are doing better though, still keeping the honour of good craftmanship allive.

Sorry but could not hold back the above tirade.

If for what reason ever, Glen or other good honers in the States don't have the time or possibility, send the razor to me back to Germany I will hone it for free. It is a shame.

Regards Peter

Peter you are a true gentleman and an asset to the SR community.

I think that the Solingen manufacturers need to re-prioritize their manufacturing goals.

If it were me, the expense to hone a truly exceptional edge would come before the expense of fancy gold and scalloped spines. If they want to do that later, after they can send out all razors with superior edges and grinds, then that is OK. I agree with you that the buyer is focused on the shaving edge on the razor he receives from the factory. An inferior shaving experience is a failure to deliver a promised quality product. I do not understand how they can justify a business model that sends out an inferior edge or grind, and then denying warranty if the user tries to correct it. Solingen really is getting a bad name and partially because of a US vendor claiming that non-shaving edges and poor grinds are actually a superior shave!

All the Solingen companies have to do is make products that people want to buy rather than products that they want to make.

All the best sir!

Steve

A few years ago I was in a shaving shop in a mall. I was traveling and was just looking to buy some DE blades. A salesman was trying to push a razor on a guy. Said all it needs is a good stropping and it would be shave ready. I guess this customer had been doing a little reading about factory edges. I bought my blades and as I was walking out the door I yelled at the customer and told him that the salesman was full of shit and the razor would need a proper hand honing before it would shave. I got some nasty looks but the customer smiled as if he knew.

I agree with you, Steve! It's a shame.

Steve that is exactly the situation.
Some Solingen companies (not all! but turning out more and more) think that the quality of the products they produce „jump“ into the cutlery as soon as they put the stamp „Solingen“ on it. But in fact the most quality has only the stamp itself and not the product they produce.

In Solingen, some of you may know, there is a law called „Solingen Verordnung“. It was invented some decades ago to save the name Solingen for good quality products coming from that region and to prevent that low cost companies, especially from Asia, were able to simply print Solingen on their product to make provit from that.

The regulation says that the name Solingen may only be used in the course of trade for such cutlery for which:

1. All main production steps need to be carried out with the Solingen industrial area

and that

2. The raw material and processing must be suitable for the intended use of the species

Even if the quality of the products is not explicitly mentioned here, it is of course included in paragraph 2. But there is no commission that really monitors all production steps or the quality of the final product. So I know of several violations of paragraph 1 that have occurred in the past and have also been reported sometimes in the press (it is easy to proove that products or production steps have been carried out from somewhere else). But I have not heard of companies or responsible people that have been claimed for violation of paragraph 2 so far.

Originally Posted by Steve56

Peter you are a true gentleman and an asset to the SR community.

I think that the Solingen manufacturers need to re-prioritize their manufacturing goals.

If it were me, the expense to hone a truly exceptional edge would come before the expense of fancy gold and scalloped spines. If they want to do that later, after they can send out all razors with superior edges and grinds, then that is OK.
Steve

Well this is also a point I have been recognizing the last maybe ten years. A lot of new custom razor makers but also some veteran companies tend to produce: extremely wide razors, fancy spinework, fancy scales, (often low quality) damascus steel and a lot of other accesoires or gimmicks and that all for a lot of money. Nothing to say against this - but first and absolute precondition for me is the craftmanship of razor grinding. This is the basis and first to learn and master from all those who call theirselfes razor manufacturors. After that, each one may go his way and add and produce whatever he or his customers like.

Regards Peter

Originally Posted by RezDog

Well it is possible that it was a factory edge. There are a few sellers that hand hone every razor before it is sent out. You did not mention where it was purchased. Factory edges, as said are very hit and miss. Gssixgun is close by in north Idaho. I have no idea if anyone is closer. There is the whole shave and strop experience, that also as mentioned is paramount to getting a good shave. I have seen more than one straight razor shaving video on YouTube showing poor technique. Geo fat boy does some good straight razor shave videos. A good stropping video
https://youtu.be/7C6NlY_NEXQ

I agree.

It is hard enough to learn to combine the three essential skills (shaving, stropping and honing) when learning to use a straight razor proficiently, as a single slip-up in any one of them can ruin an otherwise perfect shave and possibly dull the edge beyond what a novice is capable of fixing.

That is certainly not helped by some individuals peddling their wares and making YouTube videos where try to demonstrate (in a single pass shave to boot) that Dovos leave the factory shave-ready.

“Shave-ready” is a poorly defined term and one shaver’s “shaved-ready” is another shaver’s “butter knife”.
What this video showed me was that this particular seller cannot be trusted as either his bar regarding “shave-ready” is ridiculously low, or he is peddling his wares no matter what.

More trustworthy sellers either hone razors before shipping them (even it it might void the warranty, in which case the buyer should be given the choice to have it honed or not), but would not mislead the unwary with the claim that Dovos leave the factory shave-ready when the evidence points to the contrary.

There is sufficient anecdotal evidence to suggest that Dovos seem to be at best hit-and-miss in this respect.


B.